Dec 19th was not as cold as today and yesterday. However, we still had to bundle up on that outing.
Heck, Gracie would go if she could have.
To stay out of the cold wind that morning (Dec. 19th), we planned to stay near a creek or ravines. Definitely in the woods where wind would not blow as hard.
Maybe you noticed in the photo above, our first mushroom. The bank seemed to be trying to swallow up the fungus. Or perhaps, the mushroom was pushing it back?
Ever since I collected the fungus caterpillar, I point the camera on the underside hoping to find another.
Nearby was this tiny one. I wonder if it might not be the Old Man of the Woods (Strobilomyces strobilaceus) mushroom. But if it is immature, maybe it should be called Baby of the Woods. FYI, this is only a wild guess on the species. I could not see if it had gills or pores. The Old Man has pores.
A small ground spider that caught my eye while stopped at the mushrooms.
Another mushroom!
Shelf fungus climbed the branch on a fallen log.
Quite the beautiful brown bands!
Barely peeking up!
Uncovered! This is no doubt a Russula mushroom. I was going to go for a guess to what species until I read Michael Kuo take on the genus. Apparently a lot of field guides would suggest this was Russula emetica. Sure enough it looks like it in my field guides. But sometimes you must dig deeper. When I searched for Russula emetica, I noticed some differences from what others had ID as such.
One characteristic was the gills did not abutted up to the stem. Another similar looking species is Russula silvicola.
So in the field, I had split it open. No color change. So for now I will just call it a Russula mushroom. Or the mushroom with the red cap. LOL
Photos from today below. Of course, I had to sit and watch the birds from inside the warm house today.
It has been awhile since I have seen a Field Sparrow in the yard.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker visited as well. Thirteen species for the front yard today.
Final photo of an icicle. Indeed, it was interesting how it stacked up or I should say down.
We saw a sapsucker at the park too! Really cool stuff you found as usual.
Always love mushrooms but i especially like that icicle. Never seen one like it. Thanks
I don’t recall an icicle like that either.
Cool icicle! After so many years not having a sapsucker, it is nice that ours is showing up quite a bit.
Sapsuckers are neat. I watched one of them eating snailseed.
Nice yard birds! And I love that icicle too.